European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 25, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Is Gus Schuettler Christine Willis creates her own designs for the glazed tiles she turns out. A Talent for making tiles by Rosemary Sawyer staff writer in the Home of Pacific Northwestern Christine Willis and spaniard Jose Garcia it Swillis who makes the Spanish  and her husband took the same tile making class at the recreation Center at Torrejon a Spain a couple years ago but Garcia s tile of a crab marked his first and last attempt at the Craft. Willis rooster however became the cock of the town. It started when a couple of Willis co workers saw her working on a tile of a chinese woman. The women looked at the tile looked at each other and said i know what we re going to give the colonel for his going away gift that was order number one. After that the air Force staff sergeant s Hobby turned into a booming business with orders sometimes coming in almost too fast for her to fill. It takes Willis about eight hours to finish a simple tile hours that have to be doled out Over a week or More to allow each color Glaze to dry. The Federal Way wash., native spends about three hours every night hunched Over her dining room table working at the Hobby she said has become almost like a  Willis visits the recreation Center to shop for new glazes As often As some people visit the commissary to buy milk. But like Willis husband not everyone who takes the popular tile making course is so smitten with the Craft. As any Long time Torrejon resident will Tell you Many learn it but few do  that May be because some aspects of the age old Art Are downright Messy. Tiles of family Herald Are a favorite Motif. Willis idea of a Good time involves using Lead base glazes that cause her fingernails to yellow and split and painting with a gooey Nasty grease to separate the different color glazes. If the Black grease paint gets in her hair she s forced to Cut it out if it lands on her clothes she has to throw them out and if it smudges on a tile she has to Sand it off. Some other Hobby inherent hazards include tiles cracking and glazes shrinking and bubbling when fired. One time Willis had six such disasters in one Batch All orders for people who were leaving the country. A look around Willis High Rise apartment reveals that her artistic flair in t limited to tiles. She s dabbled in still life Oil painting knotted macrame Plant hangers and hammered a hefty White Ash Bookcase to name a few. But even though she s experimented with As Many crafts As she has glazes tile making has held her attention the longest. Part of the reason Willis said is because she s intrigued with the permanence of the Art form. Throughout civilization what s left is shards of pottery she said. You can decide on How advanced a civilization is just from their  unlike an  that grows Black and dirty with age the tiles retain their brightness with just an occasional washing she said. Willis draws All her own designs and particularly enjoys studying and making tiles of family heraldry. She has at least eight More designs waiting to come to life but for now she churns out a lot of standards. The most popular Are a tile of Don Quixote jousting a Windmill and variations on the 401st tac fighter Wing Emblem. A tile measuring about one Square foot Sells for $50, a Price that the artist turned entrepreneur admits grappling Over. Pricing her work should grow easier in about two years. Willis plans to leave the air Force to stay in Spain with her husband a Spanish air Force member and Start making tiles full time. After All Willis wants to ensure that archaeologists a few Hundred years from now will have plenty to talk about. Erma Bombeck Doris from Rochester n.y., wrote i be got my 30th wedding anniversary coming up in september and i just used up my first Box of Bay leaves. The Box has a Price tag on it that says 15 cents. Am i alone pull up a Couch Doris. Of course you Are not alone. You Are a member of the largest cult of homemakers in the world who hang onto everything in their kitchens except their sanity. If spices qualified As Antiques i d have rotheby s camping at my Kitchen door. I have a spice from Ceylon to Sprinkle Over my chilled Melon one from Jamaica for pickling one from Sierra Leone for rhubarb one from Spain for sweetbreads and one from Madagascar for Winter Squash. I have no idea what i m doing with these spices because i Don t like any of the things you use them for but i know this is True once you get a spice in your Home you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. There Are several reasons for this. First they smell so Rotten to begin with that most of us have no idea when they go bad. Second they Don t take up much space so we say what the Heck. Homemakers also figure that one Rainy Day when they Are trying out a new recipe and it Calls for 1/4 Teaspoon cardamom they la have it. You could t get me to throw away my Container of fennel. This probably seems like a shallow reason but my husband alphabetized my spices and it s the Only of i have. Men do not understand this attachment to spices. One Day i asked my husband if he would put a Small Jar of mint in his Vise and take the lid off with his pliers. When did you last use this he asked suspiciously. I be never used it i said. How old is it what year did we move from Ohio you paid to have this transported from Ohio 16 years ago Why did you buy it in the first place it was on  but you hate  maybe it will absorb some of the odor of the sauerkraut in the disposer. Get the lid off if it makes you feel any better Doris i bought a Small packet of Saffron last week. Cost me an Arm and a leg. Did you know it takes approximately 55,000 Flowers to yield one Pound of it a Pinch of it will flavor a whole Pound of Rice. The egyptians were buried with their spices. So i la take the Saffron with me when i go. C 1988 Erma Bombeck Page 16 the stars and stripes monday july 25,1988